How to Fix Justify Spacing in PowerPoint: 4 Easy Methods

When creating PowerPoint presentations, you may want to use the justify text alignment to create a clean, professional look. However, sometimes PowerPoint’s justify spacing can look awkward, with large gaps between words. Luckily, there are several ways to fix justify spacing issues in PowerPoint and get your slides looking polished. In this article, we’ll cover some easy methods to adjust and perfect the justified text alignment in your PowerPoint slides.

Understanding Justified Text in PowerPoint

Before we dive into the solutions, let’s briefly discuss what justified text alignment means. When you justify text in PowerPoint, the words are spaced out so that each line stretches fully from the left margin to the right margin, except for the last line of the paragraph. This creates a neat, rectangular block of text.

However, to achieve this alignment, PowerPoint adjusts the spacing between words, which can sometimes lead to overly large gaps, especially if your text includes long words that don’t fit neatly on a line. These inconsistent gaps can make your slides look less professional.

Methods to Fix Justify Spacing in PowerPoint

Method 1: Manually Adjust Word Spacing

One way to fix large gaps in justified text is to manually adjust the spacing between individual words:

1. Highlight the justified text you want to adjust
2. Click the “Distribute Horizontally” button in the Paragraph section of the Home tab
3. If there are still large gaps, try slightly reducing the font size or adjusting the margins
4. You can also try adding soft hyphens (Ctrl+Shift+-) in long words to create better break points

This gives you the most precise control but can be tedious, especially for long paragraphs. It’s best for fixing a few small areas of text.

Method 2: Break Up Text into Columns

For larger sections of justified text, breaking it up into columns can help minimize large word gaps:

1. Highlight the text you want to split into columns
2. Go to the Columns dropdown in the Paragraph section of the Home tab
3. Choose the number of columns (2-3 often work well)
4. If needed, adjust the spacing between columns

The narrower column width makes it easier for PowerPoint to justify the text without large word gaps. This works well for medium-length chunks of text.

Method 3: Use PowerPoint’s Text Box Autofit Options

PowerPoint’s built-in autofit options can also help automatically fix some justify spacing issues:

1. Click on the justified text box
2. Go to the Text Box section of the Shape Format tab
3. Open the Autofit dropdown and select “Shrink text on overflow”
4. If needed, also check “Wrap text in shape” in the Text Box section

With these options enabled, PowerPoint will automatically shrink the text size slightly if needed to minimize large gaps between words. This is a good quick fix for large amounts of justified text.

Method 4: Left-Align Text Instead

If the gaps in your justified text are very distracting, consider left-aligning the text instead of forcing justification:

1. Highlight the text
2. Click the “Align Left” button in the Paragraph section of the Home tab

In most cases, left-aligned text looks neater and more readable than poorly-spaced justified text. Reserve full justification for small blocks of text without long words.

Adjusting Character Spacing

In addition to adjusting the gaps between words, you can also tweak the spacing between individual letters to refine the overall look:

1. Highlight the text you want to adjust
2. Click the small arrow in the bottom-right of the Font section on the Home tab
3. Go to the Advanced tab of the Font window
4. Adjust the Spacing dropdown to add or reduce space between characters

Adding slight spacing can help reduce the “squished” look of tightly justified text. Condensing the spacing slightly can fit more characters on each line, minimizing gaps.

Choosing Fonts for Better Justification

Some fonts are easier to justify neatly than others due to their proportions. In general, sans-serif fonts like Arial or Calibri tend to space more evenly compared to serif fonts like Times New Roman. If you’re noticing a lot of spacing issues, try changing the font to see if it helps.

Additionally, consider using fonts specifically designed for improved readability and even spacing, such as Verdana or Georgia. Avoid overly stylized or condensed fonts, which can exaggerate justify spacing problems.

Line and Paragraph Spacing Considerations

The spacing between lines and paragraphs also impacts the overall look of your justified text:

• Increasing line spacing can make large word gaps look less obvious
• Adding space before/after paragraphs creates visual breaks to distract from uneven spacing
• Reducing paragraph spacing can fit more lines on the slide, evening out word gaps

Play with the line and paragraph spacing settings in the Paragraph section of the Home tab to find the right balance for your content.

Testing Justified Text

Before finalizing your slides, thoroughly proofread your justified text to catch any remaining spacing issues:

1. Run the PowerPoint presentation in full-screen mode
2. Go through each slide slowly, scanning the justified text
3. Look for large gaps, words split awkwardly across lines, or overly condensed areas
4. If you spot issues, try the adjustment methods covered above

Reading the justified text out loud can also help identify phrases that sound choppy or unnatural due to spacing problems. Don’t be afraid to tweak the wording itself to improve the way it fills out each line.

Final Thoughts

Justified text alignment can give your PowerPoint slides a polished, linear look when done well. By understanding the quirks of PowerPoint’s justification and using the methods outlined above to adjust word spacing, character spacing, font choices, text box options, and more, you can fix most justify spacing issues and create professional, readable slides. When all else fails, switching to left-alignment is often better than forcing justification with awkward gaps.

The key is to proofread carefully and make targeted tweaks to problem areas. With practice, you’ll develop an eye for spotting and quickly fixing justify spacing issues in PowerPoint. Your audience will appreciate the extra attention to detail in your slideshows!

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Trish Dixon

Trish Dixon is the founder of PPTBliss and a PowerPoint expert with over a decade of experience in presentation design. Passionate about visual storytelling, Trish shares her expertise through easy-to-follow tutorials on slide design, animations, transitions, and best practices, helping professionals create impactful presentations across industries.

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